Here in the vast open fields of the rolling downland of Piccaddy, we find ourselves in the forgotten Somme, the parts of that battlefield that get fewer visitors than other locations. But here we discover the story of the grandson of Charles Dickens, look at an ancient cross that once marked his grave,

and see the grounds with the Battle of the Somme came to an end.

We've returned to the Somme this week, and we're standing on a road between the village of Longoval

and ahead of us, the village of Janshi, or Ginchi,, as soldiers who fought here in 1916, called it.

Behind us to our left is the dark mass of Delville Wood, or Devil's Wood, to the troops.

We're not only the South Africans' forts in 1916, but there was two months of fighting,

with regiment after regiment, unit after unit,

and the woods portions of it changing hands almost on an hourly, let alone daily basis.

The fields are wide and open here and spread out towards Jean Chie ahead of us.

Over to our right, we can see the village of Guimont, Gilemont.

Beyond that it's close to where the

Battle of the Somme began. The village of Hardicor is there, where the French attacked on

the 1st of July 1916. Across from that, the villages of Mometz and Monta, where British troops

attacked on the southern end of the Somme front. So from here we can see the progression, really,

of the Battle of the Somme, from the opening moments when in this area there was some success on the 1st of July 1916. The German lines between Montaubin and Hardicor were captured and that success was then exploited in the Battle of the Woods, the horseshoe of woods that characterises

this part of the Somme battlefield. First Burnifee Wood and then Trones Wood on the 14th of July

the village of Longerval behind us was captured and then South African troops entered Delville

Wood, Devil's Wood and the fighting there began. But by early September, Delville Wood was cleared

and the front lines were very close to where we're standing now. Over to our left was a whole

series of trenches captured by British troops during this fighting, known as Hop Allie, Ale

Alley and Beer Trench. You'd see what was on the mind of the staff officers that gave

these trenches their names. And then the ground across to our right, a roughly sort of triangle area

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